Bon Voyage!

Tomorrow by this time, Fisherman and I will drive our little wagon down to the dock and with tickets in hand, board the ferry off this island.

Our experiences here in Sand Point have been truly unique (to state the very least and the very obvious).  I have learned many lessons this school year and have been very much in a reversed role - learning as much from my students and those around me, as they have from me.

This year, as I was able to articulate to the entire town on Friday, I taught to to 6 grade levels in 5 classes:

• 13 short stories
• 7 novels - Of Mice and Men, The Giver, To Kill a Mockingbird, Farewell to Manzanar, The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, 
• 5 epics - Beowulf, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, Paradise Lost
• 5 dramas - Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Gulliver's Travels
• Poetry - Renaissance Poetry, Metaphysical Poets (including John Donne), Harlem Renaissance poetry
• Fairy Tales
• The Arthurian Legends
• Greek and Norse Mythology

I have taught my students how to blog, how to write personal narratives, how to write persuasively, , and finally how to construct a literary analysis that would make your socks melt!  Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it!

The real lessons I learned, however, outweigh even the hefty list of literature.  My most important lesson was learned in my own home.  I learned how to be married to my husband.  I learned, thanks to our remote location and removal, to depend on another human being.  I learned that when things get sketchy HE is my sunshine.  I learned how to be his wife.

We had each other here on this island.  That. Is. All.  We were surrounded by people, but it was truly as if we had landed on the moon.  EVERYTHING was different.  I was forced to leap outside of my comfort zone.  This blog is aptly entitled "The Blonde Bulldozer".  I am headstrong, fierce, and have rarely been afraid of trying new things.  But, this place, is tough.  Being in this climate, these surroundings, among some of the toughest people in the world, I had no other choice but to cling to my husband - the only other "like-minded alien" around.

My husband is my hero and truly a man who lives his vows to his wife, daily.  Love, even when he doesn't really like me or my oddities.  Honor - finding ways to honor my individuality while leading me to be a stronger human being.  And finally, cherish...any man who will sit in a car whilst his wife is getting a manicure, haircut, all the while bringing her a fountain soda and dries her tears as she sobs at the possibility of not going home for Christmas, has learned and earned these lessons, ten-fold.

So, as we embark on our next adventure and load our truck and vagabond our way down North America to heaven knows where, I am firmly fixed in my love for Fisherman and await with baited breath our exodus.

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